Name: Caring for engineered tissue
Uploaded: 2011-07-08T00:00:00Z
Duration: 3 min 56 s
Description: Tissue engineer and TED Fellow Nina Tandon is growing artificial hearts and bones. To do that, she needs new ways of caring for artificially grown cells -- techniques she's developed by the simple but powerful method of copying their natural environments.

Nina Tandon: Caring for engineered tissue

Caring for engineered tissue

Tissue engineer and TED Fellow Nina Tandon is growing artificial hearts and bones. To do that, she needs new ways of caring for artificially grown cells -- techniques she's developed by the simple but powerful method of copying their natural environments.

Growing tissues like tiny beating hearts in the lab starts with mimicking the environments cells know best. Simple changes, such as adding electrodes or channeling nutrients like blood vessels, can coax cells to organize and function as they do in the body. Even a marshmallow-sized cluster of heart cells will pulse with surprising vigor when provided the right cues. These lessons reveal how deeply our lives depend on the invisible labor and needs of our own living cells.